March 24, 2014

World War Three?

Whether we come out on the right side of this struggle depends on whether Europe and ourselves can pull together. Putin is counting on that not happening and he may be right.

The United States must recognize there will be cost associated with this quiet war. America must open up its natural gas resources to Europe. This in turn will result in higher energy cost to U.S. consumers who are voters. This will play against the personal objective of our politicians to remain in office.The oligarchs in this country are aggressively taking over just as in Russia. The major difference is in Russia it is more apparent.

Europe must also recognize that this conflict will also affect them economically. Because of the close proximity to Russia they are in greater physical danger than we are.. This is not the time to repeat the mistakes made by the free world with Adolf Hitler in the 1930's. Don't think if we just slap Putin's wrists he will repent and not do anything further.

We need to also pay attention to China and prevent Russia from building a wedge between China and ourselves. Philosophically we are more aligned with the Chinese than we are Russia. For most of China's 2,500 years of history they were not the aggressor. Even while they were at the height of their dominance they did not seek to control other lands. Still we need to be concerned with China's desire to reunite Taiwan with the mainland and to protect the islands in the South China Sea from Japan's claim of ownership. Both could lead to war.China will be successful in reuniting Taiwan with the Republic of China just as was the case with Hong Kong. Hong Kong was surrendered by Britain without a shot being fired. The dispute with Japan is slightly more concerning. During a fifty year period between the late 1800's and the mid 1940's Japan attacked China twice resulting in two brutal wars with millions of Chinese killed. China has a long memory.

Presently China is exercising one of its long standing strategies when it comes to defending itself from potential enemies. Get two or more adversaries to compete against each other for their attention. I suspect that is what China is presently doing with Russia. It is a way for China to keep America "honest" in our dealings with that great nation.More